Current Earthweek Events
Earthweek in the Past
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Look out for Earthweek information at the Sustainability Team (STeam) table on Cal Day, April 12th!
Schedule of Events
Monday, April 21
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Chancellor’s Sustainability Summit
8am – 1:30pm, Pauley Ballroom
Agenda:
8:00am-9:00am Poster Session
9:00am-10:00am Main Program (Speech by Chancellor and Lisa McNeilly, Sustainability Director)
10:00am-11:00am Breakout Session 1
11:00am-12:00pm Breakout Session 2
12:00pm-1:30pm Lunch (Keynote Michel Gelobter, Sustainability Awards)Come join us for the 5th Annual Sustainability Summit presented by the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Sustainability (CACS)!
We are expanding this year's summit to a half-day event that will connect the broader campus community. This event aims to educate and initiate a movement towards sustainability as individuals and as a community. It is also an opportunity to recognize campus achievements through Sustainability Awards and showcase accomplishments achieved by the large array of internships and environmental programs at UC Berkeley.
This year’s program includes a speech by Chancellor Birgeneau and the new Sustainability Director, Lisa McNeilly, as well as two hour-long educational breakout sessions that will address different aspects of sustainability. A keynote speech will take place during lunch, which will be provided by Café De La Paz. The keynote speaker is renowned environmentalist and UC Berkeley graduate, Michel Gelobter, who will be talking about social justice and climate change.
Breakout sessions include:
-“Greening” Your Everyday Life
-Chat with the Sustainability Director
-Climate Change: The Science and the Social Justice
-Who’s Involved in the Environmental Movement?Click here for more information on the breakout sessions.
Everybody, no matter your role on campus or previous knowledge of sustainability, is encouraged to attend!
For more information, click here or e-mail cacssummit{AT}berkeley{DOT}edu.
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Build-A-Thon 2008 with Habitat for Humanity
8am – 4pm, April 19-22 at 10900 Edes Avenue in Oakland.
Join Cal Habitat in framing 6 homes for needy families in 4 days. Cal Berkeley Habitat will arrange transportation for student participants so you don’t even have to find a ride! All participants get instant active membership status in Cal Habitat! Make a difference for a needy family! Bring your friends and have a ton of fun!! In addition, all of these homes are built with earth-friendly green building technology!
Sign up at here and then send an email to buildathon{AT}gmail{DOT}com to let us know you’ve signed up or if you have any questions.
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Green Resource Faire
10am – 2pm, Memorial Glade.
Come to the Glade and learn more about environmental organizations from all over California in a fun, lively atmosphere! Attending organizations include:
-Mission Playground—Buy organic cotton t-shirts from this San Diego based environmentally and socially conscious clothing business.
-Wiser Earth—An environmentally-oriented networking tool and community for “non-profit organizations, funders, social entrepreneurs, students, organizers, academics, activists, scientists, and citizens to find each other, make connections, build alliances and share resources.”
-Urban Releaf
-Ecology Center
-Berkeley Worms
-Food First
-CalPIRG—Port of Oakland Campaign
-and many more! -
Sustainability Team Table (every day)
10am – 2pm, Memorial Glade.
Check out the table of the organizers of Earthweek. Buy Klean Kanteens, Earthweek T-Shirts, and learn about the many projects we organize!
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Cal Band Performance
12pm, Memorial Glade.
Watch the Cal Band perform on the Glade and start off a week of celebration!
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Green Apartment Tours by Green Campus
4pm, 4:30pm, or 5:00pm.
Take one of these three tours and learn about how UC Berkeley students are living green on our very own campus.
The Green Apartment is a demonstration area that showcases how any person can reduce their impact on the environment. This area focuses on a student's transition from a residence hall to an apartment. The Green Apartment targets students and demonstrates how a typical college student can live more sustainably without drastically changing his/her lifestyle or spending copious amounts of money. The room educates visitors on "concious consumerism" and changes in behavior that lessen one's impact on the environment.
Sign up for tours and find out more information here. Tours are on a first come, first serve basis!
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Green Jobs Panel
7pm, 2050 Valley Life and Sciences Building.
Learn about the future and present state of Green Jobs. Mayor Tom Bates will discuss Berkeley’s latest environmental progress, as well as student Rachel Barge (co-author of the The Green Initiative Fund Bill), Professor Dan Kammen (Professor of Energy and Resources 100), and Tim Pine (Environmental Specialist in the Office of Environmental Health and Safety). The moderator will be graduate student John Stanley (co-author of The Green Initiative Fund Bill).
Tuesday, April 22 (Earth Day!)
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Build-A-Thon 2008 with Habitat for Humanity
8am – 4pm, April 19-22 at 10900 Edes Avenue in Oakland.
Join Cal Habitat in framing 6 homes for needy families in 4 days. Cal Berkeley Habitat will arrange transportation for student participants so you don’t even have to find a ride! All participants get instant active membership status in Cal Habitat! Make a difference for a needy family! Bring your friends and have a ton of fun!! In addition, all of these homes are built with earth-friendly green building technology!
Sign up at here and then send an email to buildathon{AT}gmail{DOT}com to let us know you’ve signed up or if you have any questions.
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Cal Club Carnival
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10am – 2pm, Memorial Glade
Cal hosts a wide variety of environmental organizations ranging from energy efficiency to organic gardening. Come to the Glade and learn more about what these clubs do on Earth Day! Attending organizations include:
-Sustainability Team—Come to our booth everyday of Earthweek and learn about the many projects “STeam” puts on, including Earthweek. Buy a Klean Kanteen, as well.
-Students for a Greener Berkeley
-Berkeley Institute for the Environment—Calculate your carbon footprint and make a pledge to reduce your carbon output!
-Forestry Club
-The Cal Staff Sustainability Action Network—CalSSAN
-The Green Initiative Fund—TGIF. Learn about how far the Spring 2007 referendum has progressed and to what sustainable projects your student fees are going to.
-CalPIRG
-Office of Environmental Health and Safety
-Residential Sustainability Education Coordinators
-Re-Use
-Roots and Shoots
-The Green Rooms—Find out about how several Cal students live more sustainably in the residence halls.
-and many more! -
Sustainability Team Table (every day)
10am – 2pm, Memorial Glade.
Check out the table of the organizers of Earthweek. Buy Klean Kanteens, Earthweek T-Shirts, and learn about the many projects we organize!
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Sustainability Summit Poster Display
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10am – 2pm, Memorial Glade
Missed out on the Chancellor’s Sustainability Summit on Monday? Come to the Glade and look at the posters of the Summit’s participants and grant recipients. Learn about the amazing projects your own peers are initiating!
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African Drum Circle
11am, Memorial Glade.
Relax on the Glade with your delicious food and join in or just listen to Cal’s African Drum Circle.
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Strawberry Creek Clean-Up
Come by Sather Gate on Tuesday (Earth Day!) and assist in cleaning-up of one of UC Berkeley's most beautiful natural resources: Strawberry Creek on campus!
Show up at Sather Gate anytime between 11am and 2 pm; we provide the trash Bags and gloves and give you some suggestions on where to start.
Come on your own, with friends, or as part of a class or Campus organization. Please wear appropriate clothing (jeans or trousers you don't mind getting a little dirty in) and closed toe shoes. Participants receive a free Protect Strawberry Creek ceramic mug! Remember, the trash you take out of the Creek not only helps Cal but keeps the Bay clean too!
For more information, contact Tim Pine at (510)643-8542 or tpine{AT}berkeley{DOT}edu
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Workshop—Online tools for Change: Using the Web to Promote Environmental Sustainability & Social Justice (WiserEarth)
5pm, 110 Wheeler.
People from around the world are working toward environmental sustainability and social justice and have created one of the largest movements for change in history. Web-based tools play a crucial role in this movement, because they offer a space for this movement to organize, collaborate, and grow. This workshop explores WiserEarth, a community networking site for students, non-profits, and community organizers, and engages participants in a discussion about their experiences using web tools to network the causes they are passionate about.
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Workshop—Living Green: How Cal Students Can Do It (Students for a Greener Berkeley)
6pm, 110 Wheeler.
Get an overview of the sustainability available at Cal as well as the secrets on living a more sustainable life, including:
-Sustainability Structure and Overview at Cal
-Sustainability Secrets
-How to be a Sustainable Student -
Spring Farm to Table Dinner: Local Organic Sustainable Menu Served (Cal Dining)
Dinner time, campus Dining Commons
Come to any Dining Commons for a full menu featuring local organic produce from the 'grower's collaborative.' Foothill Dining Commons will hold special events such as taste tests and distance challenges with prizes, compost awareness, and food films.
BUY FRESH. BUY LOCAL. -
“An Evening On Strawberry Creek”
6 – 8pm, Alumni House.
Learn about the historical significance of this beautiful waterway to the Cal campus, hear updates on recent restoration activities, and share in the vision of a restored Creek that nurtures, refreshes, and educates the Berkeley community.
This is a free event with limited seating, so please RSVP to tpine{AT}berkeley{DOT}edu to ensure we can accommodate you. Light refreshments will be served from 6:00 to 6:30; the program will begin at 6:30 p.m.
"An Evening On Strawberry Creek" is organized by the U.C. Berkeley Office of Environment, Health, & Safety; the Campus Strawberry Creek Environmental Quality Committee, and the Strawberry Creek Fund.
We hope to see you there!
Wednesday, April 23
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Green Picnic
10am – 2pm, Memorial Glade.
Bring a blanket and your friends to the Glade to eat some local organic and sustainable foods! We’ve invited vendors from Berkeley’s farmers markets as well as some of Cal’s own groups to provide delicious organic foods from Thai to Mexican. Attending food vendors include:
-Curry Leaf Cuisine
-Andy and Cindy Thai Cuisine
-Flacos
-The Phoenix Pastificio
-Cal Dining—Learn about the latest environmental developments in Cal’s own food system.
-The Local—Another one of Sustainability Team’s projects, the Local will provide the only produce this day. Come and buy produce for later meals!
-Strauss Yogurt
-Vital Vittles
-Society for Agriculture and Food Ecology—SAFE. Try butter-making with this Cal student group using organic materials.
-and many more! -
Sustainability Team Table (every day)
10am – 2pm, Memorial Glade.
Check out the table of the organizers of Earthweek. Buy Klean Kanteens, Earthweek T-Shirts, and learn about the many projects we organize!
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Cal “Green” Cook-Off
12pm, Memorial Glade.
Try solar-cooked brownies by Professor Dan Kammen!
More information to be announced.
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The Attachments Performance
12pm, Memorial Glade.
Relax on the Glade and listen to Berkeley’s local, graduate-student comprised band!
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Speaker, Jason Mark—Local Environmental Activist
7pm, 100 Genetics and Plant Biology.
Jason Mark is the editor for Earth Island Journal and also just came out with a new book! He is the co-author (with Kevin Danaher and Shannon Biggs) of Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the grassroots. His book charts the efforts of local communities to create a more ecologically sustainable and socially responsible economy.
But Jason does not just write about sustainable practices and lifestyles, he is a part of them! He is the co-manager of Alemany Farm (www.alemanyfarm.org), a 4.5-acre farm in the middle of San Francisco. Alemany Farm uses organic fruit and vegetable cultivation to give "at-risk" youth meaningful job training and to educate the public about our reliance on natural systems. The Farm, located next to a public housing complex, participates in a government-subsidized farmer's market geared toward improving food security in San Francisco's poorer neighborhoods.
Author-Activist-Farmer Jason Mark is an energetic and engaging speaker who you do not want to miss. He just did a bike tour last fall with Nina Rizzo that was received enthusiastically by colleges around the San Francisco bay area and he is eager to speak at other events/schools in California.
Click here for more information about Jason Mark and Global Exchange.
Thursday, April 24
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Transportation and Energy Faire
10am – 2pm, Lower Sproul.
Check out cars and buses from the Bay Area’s most green-minded businesses and public sectors. Participants include:
-City CarShare—Check out one of City CarShare’s cars and learn about how car sharing works.
-KEMA—Learn more about this energy consulting firm.
-Berkeley’s own Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car
-Gotalift.com
-CalPIRG—High Speed Rail Campaign
-and many more!Enter to win prizes!
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Sustainability Team Table (every day)
10am – 2pm, Memorial Glade.
Check out the table of the organizers of Earthweek. Buy Klean Kanteens, Earthweek T-Shirts, and learn about the many projects we organize!
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MLK Solar Panel Tour (today and tomorrow)
12pm – 12:30pm or 1pm – 1:30pm, outside of the second floor elevators in MLK Student Union.
Take one of our two solar panel tours today guided by our very own Earthweek Committee members! Learn about the solar panels on the roof of the MLK Student Union building.
Sign up for tours all week at the Sustainability Team table on Memorial Glade.
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LEED Green Building Symposium
6:30 – 8:30pm, the Wells Fargo Room in the Haas Business School.
There is a reception between 6 and 6:30pm, and the panel starts at 6:30pm.
The green movement in real estate has been building for a decade now. As the movement grows, investors, private developers, and end users are all recognizing the potential in participating. Our panel will examine the unique challenges, as well as the opportunities, associated with financing, designing, constructing and developing green building projects. Our panelists will discuss such topics as:
-What is Green Building?
-Why is there a push for Green building?
-How do the benefits of building green compare to rising construction and materials cost?
-Who is currently investing in green buildings?
-Is there quantifiable proof that going green does not drive up costs?
-How do you position green buildings to be value-added?
-Do design teams often encounter resistance from the construction team and engineers?
-What are the most important factors when designing a green building?
-How do you measure the return on your investment?The panel includes:
Dan Geiger, Executive Director of the Northern California USGBC (Moderator)
Grant French, Corporate Sustainability Manager of Swinerton Builders
Andrew Nelson, Vice President of Research at RREEF
Kacey Clagett, Development Director of Field Paoli Architects
Richard Springwater - The Prado GroupThis event is sponsored by UREC, Urban Land Institute, and The Fisher Center.
Affiliated groups include Beacn, AIAS, CASA, BUSSA, and the Barch Group.
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Speaker, Rosemary Enie— Geologist and Gender Ambassador
6:30pm, 100 Genetics and Plant Biology.
Rosemary Olive Mbone Enie is a Cameroonian Geologist and Gender Ambassador with the Gender and Water Alliance (GWA) of the Netherlands in Cameroon. She was as the General Secretary of Women International Coalition Organization (WICO) International, the President of WICO Africa and the Executive Director of Cameroon Vision Trust, a Cameroon based NGO. For over 15 years she has been actively working in the field of sustainable development and environmental management at grassroots levels in Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and beyond.
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Creativity and Community Celebration
10am – 2pm, Memorial Glade.
For the last day of Earthweek, come to the Glade and check out environmental art ranging from ecological themes to art made from trash. Also participate in our Art Miles Mural Project, where we’ll be painting murals on canvas with “eco-paint” to send to the UN’s Decade for Culture and Peace along with hundreds of other environmentally-themed murals.
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Origins of Art Contest
10am – 2pm, Memorial Glade.
Check out our variety of art entries from traditional oil paintings with environmental themes to giant structures made of trash. Winners will be announced at 2pm and awarded prizes.
Email nmcrum{AT}berkeley{DOT}edu or mec{AT}berkeley{DOT}edu to submit an entry!
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Art Miles Mural Project
10am – 2pm, Memorial Glade.
Help paint our Earthweek Logo onto a giant 5 ft x 12 ft canvas using eco-paints (Old Fashioned Milk Paint). Bring paintbrushes and clothes you can get dirty!
We’ll be sending our murals to the UN’s Decade for Culture and Peace in Austria. Check out the Art Miles Mural website for more information!
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Sustainability Team Table (every day)
10am – 2pm, Memorial Glade.
Check out the table of the organizers of Earthweek. Buy Klean Kanteens, Earthweek T-Shirts, and learn about the many projects we organize!
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MLK Solar Panel Tour (yesterday and today)
12pm – 12:30pm or 1pm – 1:30pm, outside of the Second Floor Elevators in MLK Student Union.
Take one of our two solar panel tours today guided by our very own Earthweek Committee members! Learn about the solar panels on the roof of the MLK Student Union building.
Sign up for tours all week at the Sustainability Team table on Memorial Glade.
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Green Suite Tour with Green Campus
1pm or 1:30pm.
Take one of these two tours and learn about how UC Berkeley students are living green on our very own campus.
The Green Suite is a demonstration area that showcases how any person can reduce their impact on the environment. This area focuses on green technologies that reduce water and energy consumption, including pressure-assist toilets. The Green Suite also demonstrates how a typical college student can live more sustainably without drastically changing his/her lifestyle or spending copious amounts of money.
Sign up for tours and find out more information here. Tours are on a first come, first serve basis!
1st Annual UC Berkeley EarthWeek Environmental Film Festival
6 – 9:30pm, Wheeler Hall, Rooms 110, 210, and 220
Come to Wheeler, watch one or all of these nine environmental films, and speak with several of the makers! Refreshments will be served and a $5 donation is suggested.
Film descriptions are listed below (click the links for more information):
By: Stephen Strout
Runtime: 78 minutes
Summary:
Revolution Green is a revealing documentary about the renewable energy called biodiesel and it’s importance to the world economy. Based on a true story, Revolution Green follows the lives of Bob and Kelly King, whose pioneering vision created America’s first sustainable biodiesel refinery in Maui back in 1996. Bob and Kelly’s company, named Pacific Biodiesel, became the first private company in America to divert and refine thousands of tons of municipal grease trap waste and waste vegetable oil into clean-burning, premium ASTM certified, B100 biodiesel. Years later, country music legend Willie Nelson became very interested in the King’s vision of sustainable biodiesel, eventually forming a strong partnership. Over a short period of time, Willie and good friend Bill Mack would single-handedly use satellite radio to talk to truckers and farmers about biodiesel, elevating the renewable fuel into mainstream recognition.
Revolution Green is an American story about the responsibility that comes with freedom of choice. It follows one man’s vision to manufacture biodiesel and one man’s determination to spread the word; one man’s quest to use it in his big rig, and one man’s desire to farm his soybeans into biodiesel. Their unique perspectives on living a sustainable way of life offer audiences a chance to become empowered to make a difference in simple everyday choices.
By: Emiko Omori, Jed Riffe
Runtime: 56 minutes
Summary:
Many Californian farmers are struggling to fend off overdevelopment and the loss of lands and traditions, while embracing innovative visions of agricultural sustainability. At the same time, California is where fast food was born and a center of the biotechnology industry and large corporate agribusiness. This fascinating documentary explores the intersection of food and politics in California over the last 30 years. Ripe for Change reveals two parallel yet contrasting views of our world. One holds that large-scale agriculture, genetic engineering, and technology promise a hunger-less future. The other calls for a more organic, sustainable, and locally focused style of farming that reclaims the aesthetic and nurturing qualities of food and considers the impact of agriculture on the environment, on communities, and on workers.
By: Holiday Johnson and David McGuire
Runtime: 27 minutes
Summary:
Take a voyage of underwater discovery and study the ecological relationship between reef sharks and the coral reefs they inhabit. The film examines escalating threats such as habitat destruction and overfishing that are causing Pacific reef shark populations to plummet. Through stunning footage of remote Pacific islands, the film takes you on a journey of adventure that dispels the notion of sharks as vicious man-eaters and inspires our audience to take action protecting these ocean treasures.
By: Jed Riffe
Runtime: 78 minutes
Summary:
The movie is the first documentary film to investigate the controversy over the legalization of cannabis as a medicine in the United States. This powerful film features leading experts and researchers from all over the world on both sides of the controversy over the therapeutic potential of marijuana. In the United States, while many states have passed laws with medical marijuana provisions, its use, cultivation and possession - for any reason - remain illegal under federal law.
The award winning film does not serve as propaganda for one opinion or another, but focuses instead on the real stories and struggles of people on opposite ends of this provocative spectrum. Above all, Waiting to Inhale opens our eyes to the unique world of individuals enmeshed in a conflict whose stakes are nothing short of life and death.
By: Katie Heineman & Madison Sheffield
Runtime: 9 minutes
Summary:
Two college vegetarians think they can transform the eating habits of a local cowboy because it's better for the earth, or so they think. The vibrant vaquero has his own thoughts too.
By: Isaac Brown, Eric Flagg
Runtime: 27 minutes
Summary:
Lawns are undeniably an American symbol. But what do they really symbolize? Pride and prosperity? Or waste and conformity? Gimme Green is a humorous look at the American obsession with the residential lawn and the effects it has on our environment, our wallets and our outlook on life. From the limitless subdivisions of Florida to sod farms in the arid southwest, Gimme Green peers behind the curtain of the $40-billion industry that fuels our nation’s largest irrigated crop—the lawn.
For the Price of a Cup of Coffee
By: Hypatia Porter
Runtime: 15 minutes
Summary:
Follow the life cycle of a paper cup and the environmental repercussions of a society reliant on convenience. Filmed in the San Francisco Bay Area with interviews from local activists and experts. Maybe you’’ll remember now to bring your own cup to the café.
By: Aaron Wolf
Runtime: 88 minutes
America's fast-food empire is fueled by a secret ingredient: corn. High fructose corn syrup makes the sodas sweet, corn-fed beef makes the burgers fat, and corn oil crisps the fries. As college buddies Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis find out, their junk food generation has grown up eating so much corn that if you test their hair– it's actually made of the stuff. King Corn follows Ian and Curt to a tiny town in the middle of Iowa, where they plant and grow an acre of America's most powerful crop, and attempt to follow its fate as food. What they find is alternately hilarious and horrifying: genetically modified seeds and home-brewed corn syrup, a bumper crop of obesity and diabetes, and a government paying farmers to grow what's making us sick. You'll never enjoy a soda again.
By: Katie Heineman & Madison Sheffield
Approximate runtime: 5 minutes
A short film about what UC Berkeley students are doing to bring sustainability to campus. Hosted by Sustainability Team, The Local! is the first-ever UCB student cooperative organic vegetable/fruit stand on campus! Come to the steps of the MLK Student Union building (at Bancroft and Telegraph) between 11am to 3pm every Wednesday to purchase locally-grown, sustainable produce at a reasonable price! It's run entirely by volunteers so that the produce is practically a wholesale price! Support local farms, know where your food comes from, and spend less - what could be better?